Fight By The Team (Team Fear Book 2) (4 page)

At night when she couldn’t sleep in the unfamiliar bed with possible bed bugs, she heard him toss and turn, nearly as sleepless. The soft snuffle he made when he dreamed made her want to slip into his bed and burrow close. After the maid came in and mixed up the bed linens, Debi could smell which pillow he’d slept on the night before. She was freaking toast unless she put some distance between the two of them. She took a step back until her thighs hit the desk. She knew one sure way to get him to back off. “Tell you what, Rosie. Give me your first name and I’ll lay off.”

He filled the distance. “Let it go.”

A grin popped out, tightening the muscles in her cheek. She busted out laughing. The big guy was trying to intimidate her, but all he was doing was forcing her claws in deeper. “Dwayne?”

“Drop it.”

“Melvin? Primrose?”

A film dropped over his eyes and his features smoothed. Quite a trick to shut off all emotion; one that sent goose bumps washing over her skin in trepidation. He was more like the guys from Echo than any of them wanted to believe.

“Move out.” He grabbed the bag of water bottles and the Ziploc with the empties, and stepped into the hall. Even in his pique, he still held the door open and motioned her in front of him. The rest of the trek through the administration building, he treated her to a silence that scraped her nerves. The halls packed with students on the way to or from lunch. This was why she’d wanted to get to campus early. She wanted to avoid the students, the teachers, and the coffee kiosk in the corner under the stairs.

Rose muttered what sounded like a curse under his breath. Tension corded his muscles, sending her heart racing.

“What is it?”

He pulled her out of the flow of traffic. “I think I saw someone I know.”

She snapped the hairband on her wrist to halt the fear, but it was too late. Her legs trembled beneath her. Anyone he knew was either fearless, crazy, or dead.

T
he sight
of a lost soldier set off explosions in Rose’s mind. He stationed Debi near the coffee shop with strict orders to stay put. The busy administration building was as safe as they could expect. He double-timed it through the hall after a man who looked suspiciously like their fearless leader. Captain freaking Johnson. The hair was longer and darker. He carried a backpack and fit into the student crowd as much as a man the size of an ox could blend, but he hadn’t hidden his precise movements. The economy of movement, the innate awareness had caught Rose’s attention as they passed each other.

If Captain Johnson was walking these halls, the university was a hot zone.

The crowd swirled like a rushing river, too fast to notice one woman barely hanging on through the churning mass of bodies. Skin brushed as the crowd flowed around her. Heat rose through her body as Debi cast a furious glance around the area, looking for Rose. Someone grabbed her from behind. Debi twisted to break free, turned, and found herself enveloped in a hug. The other woman held on like Debi would bolt, which she might, but there wasn’t the time or space.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” the woman said into her ear.

“Hannah?”

“You sound surprised to see me.” Hannah leaned back and tucked a stray hair behind her pierced ears. “Should be the other way around. I’m glad to see you, but surprised. I really thought you’d never step a foot here after...”

After her father had publicly rejected her. Debi swallowed the remnants of her pride. She lifted Lauren’s files like a shield. “I had to pick up Lauren’s dissertation. She’s—”

“I heard she quit.”

Bad news traveled fast. “Not exactly. Her husband got military orders, so Lauren’s finishing the program long distance.” The cover story sounded hollow.

Hannah didn’t take the bait. She glanced around like she’d rather be anywhere else. “I just left a budget meeting. The science people and the administration.”

Fabulous. Debi refused to wait around for Barry to publicly humiliate her. “I should probably let you go.”

The other woman stepped up on tiptoes to peer through the crowd. “I wanted to introduce you to my boyfriend. Jack’s supposed to meet me for lunch.”

“Another time.” The tight smile cracked her lips. “I need to get this in the mail to Lauren.”

“Wow, she’s already out of town?”

“I’ll let her know I ran into you.”

“Next time when she’s in town, we should all meet up at the bar.”

Ouch. The bar where Debi worked so she could serve everyone as a reminder of her diminished status. The mention of it was a direct hit. “Sounds good.” Sounded like hell.

“Shit.” Hannah turned and fully faced Debi for the first time. Her freckled face screwed up in a grimace. “That made me sound like such a bitch. I’m sorry. I’m distracted, but I’m not trying to rub your face in it. I just meant I’d like to see you outside of campus. You disappeared, but that doesn’t mean you lost your friends here.”

That’s exactly what it meant. Their worlds no longer connected. They weren’t even in the same solar system, but she smiled and promised Hannah she’d meet up later. Like in an alternate universe when people didn’t want to kill her and she wasn’t on the campus where Barry or her father could humiliate her. The urge to flee became imperative, hammering against her rib cage with the need to escape.

They separated, and Debi headed for the nearest exit. The early morning snow had already melted. The smudge of the mud coated Debi’s soul, filling her with the desperate need to be quit of this place. She stepped down the stairs and around the corner where she landed in hell.

The thing that sent her running stood in the path to the staff parking lot.

“Barry.” The one word burned her throat. Of all that she feared when she and Rose started the day, the near skeletal frame in front of her was the most omnipresent. He’d lost weight, his long fingers like bones wrapped around the handle of an artfully aged messenger bag.

The sneer marking his thin lips revealed big teeth. “Debra. I’m surprised to see you here.”

She wasn’t the least bit surprised. It was like the last week had sent her barreling to this precise moment. She gripped the folders to her chest, choosing to ignore Barry. “Allyson.”

The mousey woman nodded a stiff hello. “It’s been too long.”

Debi wasn’t distracted by Allyson’s seeming kindness. She didn’t take her eyes off the thin man. “I was thinking not long enough.”

“I’m surprised to see you on campus.” Barry’s bushy eyebrow rose and a nasty glint lit his pale eyes. “In fact, I thought you were banned.”

So much for an easy in and out mission
.

“You thought wrong.” Debi shifted her gaze to the mouse. “I’m surprised you’re still working with this asshat.”

“The pay’s good. Now that he made tenure—”

“Tenure?” Debi spit the word like a curse. That was years ahead of his plan. “What did you do?”

“Fulfilled my destiny.”

“You arrogant little prig. This has nothing to do with destiny. You stole research.”

Allyson cleared her throat. “They never proved that. The student involved retracted his statement.”

“The student was me,” Debi laid it out for Allyson, because Barry would never admit it, but some dark part of her needed Allyson to know the truth. “You haven’t had an original idea in a decade. The only meaningful new research came from Hannah, Allyson, and me, and when I brought that to the attention of the head of the department, you covered your ass and set me up for a fall.”

“The head of the department agreed with me. You broke protocol, jumping from animal testing to human testing without the proper approval.”

Debi stepped into Barry’s space. Wearing heels, she towered over the sniveling scientist. “I didn’t take it to human testing. After months of successful animal testing, I knew it worked, but I didn’t give it to some unsuspecting test subject. I took it, and the second you found out, you ratted me out to the head of the department.”

“Your father deserved to know you exposed yourself to a medicine that hadn’t been approved for human consumption.”

“Bullshit.” Debi shook, but she didn’t back away. “Neither you nor the old man gave a whit about my welfare.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Allyson interjected.

“Really?” Debi turned on her former friend. “In the course of ratting me out
for my own good
, Barry also took credit for DV1028 and said I stole the propriety compound for personal use. He threw me under the bus, ruining my career and helping his in the process.”

Allyson glared at her brother. “DV1028 was Debi’s research. You took credit?”

“Anything that goes down in my lab belongs to me. Read your contract,” Barry snapped. “Debra was a hack, cutting corners and failing to follow procedure. I did what I had to do to protect the university from her ego.”

“
My
ego?” Debi gripped the folder to keep from decking the little weasel.

“You’re right. It wasn’t your ego, it was you, you illegitimate bitch. The only reason you were accepted into the university in the first place was playing the daddy card against a brilliant scientist who probably isn’t even your biological father.”

Debi lurched for him.

“Hold on, sweetheart.” Rose pulled Debi back so she didn’t hit the man, breaking her hand in the process. He’d heard enough. This situation, whatever it was, might not be the danger he had anticipated, but the look on Debi’s face said it was the explosion she’d expected from the minute her high-heeled shoes hit the ground. The woman liked heels, and God bless her, they made her legs look a mile long. Rose wrapped his arm tighter around her waist and felt her shiver in response.

Then he stepped forward and had the satisfaction of seeing Barry’s pupils dilate in fear. “One more insult to Debi, and your sister will be calling an ambulance. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” Blood rushed to his cheeks, reddening the mottled skin. “Dating a bouncer now, Debra? One with a black eye and dull intellect?”

“Is that supposed to insult me?” Rose asked.

Barry sneered. “A Neanderthal like you probably wouldn’t understand a word out of my mouth. You’re like Frankenstein’s monster, a freak of nature. Debi, as you call her, is—”

Rose shoved the professor off the sidewalk and up against the nearest building letting anger fuel his movements. Blood and oxygen engorged his muscles as his body prepared to fight. “I’m all that and more.” A science experiment gone wrong, more Frankenstein’s monster than Barry could know. Big and bad and soulless. “I could kill you in a dozen different ways without leaving a trace of evidence, so before you open your big trap again, you might want to remember that an insult to Debi is an insult to me. I will end you.”

Barry’s grunts and struggles filled the space between the buildings. Rose let him drop to the ground. He hadn’t even been aware that he’d lifted the other man off his feet. “Run, little man, before I change my mind.”

Barry straightened his tie and jerked his head to the side. “Come, Allyson.”

Allyson’s face had gone pale and she glanced between her brother and Debi before casting an uncertain look at Rose. “Debi—”

“Allyson,” Barry ordered. “Let’s go.”

“Call me,” Allyson whispered before following Barry into the quad toward the modern building in the distance.

Rose took a deep breath. He’d threatened to kill a man he didn’t know. His pulse and breathing were normal; no adrenaline flowed through his system. He might as well be looking at crafts at the state fair for all his body reacted. A knot formed in his gut like a chunk of ice keeping him numb. He turned to find Debi doubled over, her hands on her knees. “Whoa, what’s going on?”

Breath panted out and the pulse in her throat thrummed like a hummingbird on steroids. “Panic attack.”

“Yeah, I got that. Come here.” He led her to a nearby bench and forced her to sit, and then he pushed her head between her knees for good measure. “Deep breaths.”

Arms and legs twitched and she didn’t bother arguing. Her back arched with every inhale and shook with each exhale. The movement drew attention to her frailty. The back of her ribs bumped through her shirt like waves as her back convulsed with uneven breathing. She was slight. He hadn’t noticed before. She was such a big personality, her smart mouth making up for her slight physical presence. Wavy black hair cascaded down her back and veiled her face, making it hard for her to catch her breath.

Grabbing a hunk of silky hair, he sat next to her on the wooden bench and pulled the hair away to open her airways. Gradually, her breathing normalized. The shakes replaced the hiccups of her breath. “Adrenaline,” he warned. “It’s a bitch.”

“Not my first attack.” She lifted marginally, resting elbows on her knees and staring out at the parking lot. “Sorry.”

Rose didn’t want to relinquish the marginal contact, but sitting next to her holding the hair served no purpose, so he dropped the mass to her shoulders. “Sorry for what? Your ex-boyfriend? You don’t owe me an apology for that asshole.”

“No.” A shallow laugh bubbled to the service. “The days of apologizing for his high-handed behavior are over. He knows exactly what he’s doing and deserves whatever he gets.”

“Then why apologize?”

“For, uh.” A shiver shook her shoulders. “The panic attack. Sorry, I—”

“Apologizing for that is like apologizing for the snow.”

Velvety brown eyes glanced up in question.

The vulnerability on her face stopped him short. She was beautiful, something he had noticed in the abstract, but this close, he appreciated the softness of her skin over prominent cheekbones with a sassy nose. Her full lips were another damn problem. “Not something you can control.”

“Oh.” She returned her gaze to the parking lot. “Most people don’t get it, that I can’t control them.”

“Most people are idiots. What were you going to do before I got here?”

“Deck him?” Her answer was more of a question.

“If you’re going to hit, do it right.”

“Anything that caused him damage was right.”

He rearranged her hand into a proper fist, without the thumb tucked inside. “If I train you right, you could break his nose next time.”